Bruins Make HUGE Signing... (And Something Else Is Brewing)

The Boston Bruins have made a huge signing and have officially brought back Matt Quattro on a one-year deal. We're going to be breaking down this extension and why this is going to have such a big impact on not just the future of the Boston Bruins, but also the future of Matt Quattro. Folks, we have a lot to break down here today and I am going to go over why this is such a big extension and why I'm calling it that in specific. Before we do get into it, folks, if you haven't already, be sure to drop a sub here on the channel. Your support has been incredible. I appreciate all you guys for tuning into these videos every single day. We're getting videos out here this entire preseason, this entire season, covering any bit of news that is coming out. This will be your first spot to get it. We want to make sure you're staying up to date with everything Boston Bruins, so if you haven't already, be sure to drop a sub on the channel. Now, I want to get straight into this because the Bruins themselves tweeted this out that they have signed Matt Quattro to a one-year, two-way contract extension. Immediately, there were some questions as to why this took so long, why this deal was the one that happened. If we go back a couple months now, I believe, Matt Quattro really said that he wanted a one-way deal. He wanted to stay in the NHL. He feels like he is ready, that he is ready to prove that he can stay at that level. But at the point in time, and at least right now, what it still seems like because of the fact that it is a two-way deal, the Bruins didn't think so just yet. But this is not something to kind of just overlook as another player who may be sticking down in the AHL for this entire season like he did last year. This is a deal that is going to be a prove-it deal, and that is the big reason behind this. This will dictate, during the season, until the trade deadline and after, whether Matt Quattro will or will not remain with this Bruins team. When we look at the AAV, I mean, it's pretty much a minimum. It's $850K of an NHL cap, and you're getting that money. Not $850K, but you're getting an AHL equivalent down there due to the fact that it is a two-way deal. But this one is very, very interesting because we saw Matt Quattro say that he wasn't willing to sign a two-way deal or that he didn't want to. It really seemed like this was a last resort. The Bruins put this on the table and said, take it or leave it. If he had not signed this deal today, if this happened tomorrow or the day after, he would not have been able to participate in training camp. So it did seem like this was kind of the final offer of Don Sweeney and the Boston Bruins were at least willing to go right now. Because if Matt Quattro weren't someone who would be in training camp, there would be a lot of things that he would have to do much, much better in the preseason to be able to crack this lineup on opening night and make it harder than it already is going to be. And for someone like Matt Quattro, I mean, I can understand why you want to have that experience at the NHL level and you feel like you deserve to get a one-way deal. He's had two seasons of 33 games each and first one 15, second one 11, three games last season. And we saw him look very different from what we saw in 23-24 and 24-25. He looked more of a hard-nosed player, didn't mind getting into corners, into puck battles, looked a lot stronger. And that's going to be a huge benefit if his game continues just like that. But there is also a lot of people who are concerned about the fact that the longer this goes on, the more expensive he could very well be. And I mean, throughout this video and the remainder of the videos that you're going to see here across our new baseball, you're seeing the cap hits across some of the players now in the NHL like Macklem Cellebrini, Cutter Gauthier signed yesterday, Leo Carlson, you know, a lot of very, very, very big deals. Matt Quattro is going to be getting quite a bit of money if he does end up translating well to an NHL game. And that's all going to depend on how much and how important he is going to be to this Bruin team. We look at the depth chart right now. Down the middle seems to be pretty locked up. And you're also throwing that on the idea that James Higgins very well may play center. Don Sweeney has spoken about it, that we may have to try him there. We may have to see how it works out, how things go from here. Because if we do see James Higgins as a centerman, you're getting rid of either Sean Corrale, you have the opportunity to trade Pavel Zaka, you may want to try to get rid of Elias Linton. There's a lot of options that can follow from this. But even if you do keep James Higgins on the wing, you know, you end up moving Pavel Zaka to the wing for some reason or whatever may happen. It's still a very, very busy down the middle. And I mean, it's not just the NHL lineup right now. If we go ahead and look at the remainder of the depth, you see Matt Quattro there still as an RFA on Puckpedia, but almost officially signed now. You're having Lucas Reichel there, who can't play center, not really known for it. Same as Ivan Ivan. But those are four names that are also going to be trying to fight for a NHL spot. And even though it may not be down the middle, you can only have so many players on the ice. You can only have so many players in your lineup. So Matt Quattro is really going to have to impress in this training camp, in preseason. You have a chance of making this roster and you have to be smart with him. Because one big factor about this new deal is that he will have to go through waivers. He is above the age now where, you know, he can't just get sent down to the AHL. You see this here from Mick Colaggio. Just finished discussing Matt Quattro on Puck with Hags to find the center and the NHL Bruins have settled a one-year two-week deal. Paying his qualifying offer of $150K for this season, he has to clear waivers to play with the Providence Bruins. This kicks the can on a one-year down the road with the caveat of waivers. Still an RFA next year, but there's going to be a risk now of if the Bruins do end up calling up Matt Quattro to the NHL, if he does not start there. If he does go up and, you know, stay in the NHL, he starts to kind of slow down a performance. He starts to slow down on production. You want to send him down to the AHL, you're giving 31 other teams in the NHL an opportunity to claim him, have him as an RFA, and really kind of do what you couldn't do and develop him at this point right now. So, there's a lot to be kind of thought about when this is going to happen and I think the smarter thing to do would be to start Matt Quattro in the AHL, see how he starts from there, and then work his way up. Because if you automatically put him in the NHL because you feel like he's ready, you feel that the experience he has had last year and the past couple of seasons in the NHL is enough to let him compete, you could very well just be getting rid of Matt Quattro for absolutely nothing. And although, you know, you saw no team put an offer sheet on him, very well because the Bruins could mask whatever it was, it wasn't a whole lot of money. Getting him for free on a minimum deal, a lot of teams will be willing to do that. So, you know, you can pretty much wave goodbye to Matt Quattro if that is the case. But this still opens the door for a trade this season that if you do have him in the NHL, he doesn't perform, you can simply get rid of him for another team that may be looking to see if they can develop him. You may get something in return, something worthwhile, but once again, you know, I don't really think at this point right now, Matt Quattro's value is all that high and you're going to be getting a massive return from him at this point. You know, that's simply not how this is going to work. And I feel like when we're looking at what people thought the deal was going to be with the one-way deal, a lot of people thought it would be very close to what Braden Bauman got for the Golden Knights. Six-year extension, 3.4 million AAV. I saw some people think it was going to be a two to three-year deal, maybe for, you know, 2.something million. I don't hate the idea of that, but you need to see a little bit more from Matt Quattro before you can give him that. And even if this year you say, hey, he's getting much better, he looks a lot more comfortable, he has much more of a known fit for this Bruins team right now, then you can extend him to that type of deal. Although it may be a little bit more expensive, because once again, if you're looking at the bottom here, you're looking at this base bar, you're seeing some names that are quite a high price, that maybe should be a little bit less. And I think that that's going to apply to everybody, especially Matt Quattro, So give me your thoughts on this down below, because this is not as easy as it seems, but it's a very big extension in terms of the future of Matt Quattro, the Bruins, and what the plans are going to be. It just cannot be determined just yet. So if you want to stay up to date with all of this, this contract, what's going to happen to Matt Quattro, where he may end up this season, be sure to drop us off on the channel as well. We're going to give you all of your thoughts. That's all I got. Thank you for watching, folks. Hope you have a great day.